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OK, we all know what happened to IJN YAMATO in OTL - it sailed for Okinawa in April of 1945 and got blown out of the water. Operation ten-go IIRC. OK, so let's change that.

POD: The Japanese High Command decides to save the YAMATO for the actual invasion of Japan, rather than Okinawa. The YAMATO stays in the Inland Sea.

Hand-waving away, this has no impact on the war, so Japan still surrenders in August, before any invasion is launched. Further (and a bigger handwave) the YAMATO survives the various carpet bombing, submarines, air raids, and naval sweeps that the USN and USAAAF were conducting. So, as a part of the peace settlement, the US acquires IJN YAMATO, intact, as a war prize. Now what?

Please keep in mind that the Yamato is a relately new BB of unprecedented size and firepower, not some raggedy BC like HARUNA.

My Guesses:
1. Nothing. USN sails it the the West Coast, and sells it for scrap.
2. The USN keeps it for a few years as an experimental ship, then scraps it.
3. The IJN YAMATO gets a REAL good view of Bikini Atoll from atop the explosion from an a-bomb test.
4. The USN rechristens it USS [insert state name here - for yucks I'll say RHODE ISLAND (biggest ship, smallest state, whatever] and keeps it active as regular ship until the 1960s when it is decommissioned and sold.

Those are the most likely (1, 2 and 3 more so than 4). Let's go for some wacky ones now.

1. We give it the Nationalist Chinese as a war prize. Could impact the Civil War a bit; makes taking Taiwan REALLY hard for the Communists.
2. We give it to Stalin. Why not? Maybe warms over some cooling relations - and it's not really a threat to the USN anyway. Does anyone know if Stalin was impressed by big shiny phallic symbols?
3. We give it to the French. Brit suggestion (and no, the Brits don't want it) - way of apologizing for Mers El Kebir.

Anyone else have an idea?

Mike Turcotte
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